‘Gotham’ Reference Guide 1×6: Accentuate the Positive

I know I gave Barbara Kean a tough time last week, but at least she left her apartment and tried to do…something this episode. But Montoya and Allen aren’t only useless characters, but they are useless as cops, even within a fictional city. Seriously, how long have they been running around Gotham focusing solely on a wild goose chase that all started when a noted gangster gave them their only information? That is literally all the evidence they have, while the person whose murder they are trying to solve walks around the city. He has a job in a restaurant, where people eat! But no, on the intrepid members of Gotham’s MCU search as actual murders — be it by weather balloon or errant ATM or juvenile eye-clawing — happen all around them. Oh, until this week, when they hit the big break of a BUM DOWN BY THE RIVER saying he saw Jim Gordon kill Oswald Cobblepot.

“We got the son of a bitch,” Montoya says. Haha, no you don’t? Your only piece of evidence is the word of a crime boss and a vagrant with a pair of binoculars.

I had to get that out of my system, because I actually quite enjoyed the rest of this episode. Yeah, the whole Goat murderer case was solved really abruptly, and Dr. Marks confessed to Bullock way too quickly, but the ride up until that was fun. And holy character depth Batman! adolescent Bruce Wayne! Giving Detective Bullock not only an actual back story but motivation to be the “slovenly, lackadaisical” guy he is now, while at the same time giving his rough-exterior character an actual heart, was a fine choice indeed, Gotham.

So boo Montoya and Allen, hooray everything else. Accentuate the positive (like on the show, not the song that was playing while Cobblepot’s mom was giving him his Oedipus bath and speaking of that scene is Cobblepot like into Gordon more than a friend because the writers are dropping hints like what is the deal with that?)

As always, let’s run down every reference, fact, and nugget of Bat-history brought up in episode six,“Spirit of the Goat.”

So that Goat guy(s)? Randal Milkie and Raymond Earle? What’s their deal?

So besides looking and sounding like the Party City version of Christian Bale’s Batman, the Spirit of the Goat killer is yet another Gotham original. Which is awesome. The more they do this, the more it will mean when a familiar villain shows up, and the show will have genuine Oh Shit moments instead of Again? moments.

HOWEVER, and this is the pinnacle of nerdiness that these reference guides have reached so far, I can tell you that the word Gotham itself is derived from the town in Nottinghamshire, originally named Gatham, which translates literally from Old English to “an enclosure where goats are kept.”

Take this quote from the Joker himself from Scott Snyder’s Detective Comics #880: “Do you even know what Gotham means, little bird? It means a safe place for goats! And do you know what preys on goats? Bats. The bat makes the goat sick.”

So maybe this is all foreshadowing the return of the Spirit of the Goar killer at a later date, just like in this episode, only now he’ll be stopped by a fully aged Batman. Or maybe, just maybe, I’m thinking way too deeply into this.

What’s up with that girl E. Nygma is macking on? Kristen Kringle?

She’s obviously the daughter of Batman’s greatest foe.

The “Oh Come the Fuck On, Gotham” Reference

……..oh come the fuck on, Gotham.

Queen Consolidated sighting (maybe)?

Much has been made over the seemingly random giant, neon green Q in the skyline shot of Gotham. A ton of people though it was a sign for Queen Consolidated, which is the company run by the Queen family, which includes Oliver Queen AKA Green Arrow from the comics and Arrow. But apparently Gotham producer Danny Cannon told MTV it was completely unintentional, that the effects department was choosing random neon letters for signs and settled on one, single green Q.

…..oh come the fuck on, Danny Cannon.

What about the Hastings family? The girl that was killed Amber, or the dude that was hypnotized to go psycho? Robert?

Robert Hastings is the name of the actor who provided the voice of Jim Gordon for the revolutionary Batman: The Animated Series. Mr. Hastings sadly passed away semi-recently, so this was a nice little homage. Of course, the character’s daughter was murdered, he eventually went hypno-bananas and then he tried to strangle Harvey Bullock.